Joseph Leonard Cohen is a Jewish convert to Islam. Through his online activities and website, he propagates the Leninist elements of the teachings of Sayyid Qutb of calling for revolutions in the Muslim lands (see here) - while he lives in comfort in New York. Cohen also propagates the doctrines of the mentally unstable Abdullah al-Faisal, one of the more extreme of the contemporary Takfiris, one who is so extreme in his Takfir that even other Takfiris (like Abu Qatadah) had to refute him and tell him to calm down in a recorded video debate (that is available on the tube). Prior to 12th December 2009 Cohen used to run the website in which such a da'wah was being propagated. Whilst calling to his extreme ideology through his online activities over the years Cohen used to travel freely between New York and Israel for a period of time. Later he settled in Morocco and currently is in New York.

The main result of his activities has been to give the average American a distorted image of Islam, to become terrified of it, and to make them believe that all Muslims are like Cohen in their extremist way of thinking, and that this way of thinking is Islam itself. This is not the place to refute the claims and doubts of Cohen, that is the subject of other articles on this site. However, the type of call that Cohen and his likes are involved in do nothing but to frighten people away from Islam and to tarnish its image, and to maintain the paradigm of thought that Islam and all the Muslims are a threat to non-Muslims in their lands. This no doubt brings untold problems and hardships to the millions of ordinary Muslims living in the non-Muslim lands, and surely these individuals cannot feign ignorance of that. These individuals use emotive issues such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine as vessels through which to propagate their particular extremist ideologies in which they have the support of none of the orthodox Muslim Scholars - even those to whom they might feign attachment (see here and here), which is an attachment only inasmuch it allows them to prop up their figureheads and ideologues.

It is hard to believe that the likes of Cohen are trying to invite people to Islam through these activities. These are not dumb people. They do not lack the sophistication to figure out the results and implications of their actions, especially when they are appearing on prime time TV, giving interviews, knowing that their message will be reaching millions of people, and especially considering that they have to possess a certain level of sophistication to be involved in the kinds of activities they are involved in, in the first place. There are numerous reports in the press about the activities of Cohen, here is an example:

CNN's Drew Griffin interviews two American-born men who converted to Islam who say they hate the United States and our way of life. They tell Griffin that the Koran "commands" Muslims to "terrorize unbelievers." One man says he "loves Osama bin Laden" even more than he loves himself.

Unfortunately, the nature of the Muslims is such today that on account of their ignorance of the foundations of the deen of Islam, any and every naa'iq (i.e. every Abdullah, Zaid and Cohen) that comes along, dressed in Islamic garb, screaming "social justice", "apostates", "revolution" and "jihad" will quickly find thousands of deluded ignorant followers, who in their ignorance do not understand the law and rule of Allaah with respect to His creation, the nature of the divine wisdom in al-qadaa wal-qadar and the obligation to adhere to the foundations of Islam and usool of the Sunnah (in rectification and correction of what comes through al-qadaa wal-qadar) no matter what the practical circumstances.

With this widespread ignorance amongst Muslims of many of the foundational principles of Islam and the Sunnah, it becomes very easy for anyone with a slick tongue and a little knowledge to come along and amass followers. It is precisely this gullibility and naivety that some of the scholars have explained as the reason why the Dajjaal will appear amongst the latter-day Kharijites (see the ahaadeeth here), meaning they will be his followers - because the Kharijites, as also explained by the Scholars, are characterized by the following traits:

seeking of the world (wealth, position)

ignorance (of the religion)

foolishness (young with confused thinking)

deviation in the religion

And when it is the case than any Abdullaah, Zaid and Cohen can come along today and quickly amass thousands of followers with beautified, embellished speech - through the variety of media available - then how would it be when the Dajjaal himself appears (please, go and read here) and to whom Allaah will grant powers, abilities, means and ways to beguile, deceive and misguide like none before him!

The likes of Cohen have been characterized by the Scholars of Islam, such as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani who said, in describing a type amongst the Khawaarij, as occurs in (هدي الساري), p. 483, and also in al-Isaabah in the biography of Imraan bin Hattaan :

والقَعَدية الذين يُزَيِّنون الخروجَ على الأئمة ولا يباشِرون ذلك

The Qa'diyyah (literally, "the Sitters"), those who beautify revolt against the Rulers, but do not themselves participate (in the actual revolt)

The Sitters are those who lay down the ideological foundations of revolution and who goad and encourage others, but without themselves participating - in fact, they sit in relative ease, comfort and luxury thousands of miles away! Cowards playing "Cyberbutch"!